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OIS^TlOItT 


COMMEMORATING THE 151ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

BIRTH OF THOS. PAINE 

AUTHOR-HERO OF THE REVOLUTION. 


DEIHVEREIJ AT THE SEVENTH CELEBRATION OF THE 
CAGO SECULAR UNION, JAN.^30, 1888, BY 

\ 

prksii)?:nt e.^a. stevens.^'^ 


CHI- 


In the world’s history volumes are devoted to com¬ 
memorate men who have besieged cities merely for 
bloody coiKjuest, subdued ])rovinces only to enslave 
them, and overthrown eiujiires simply to set up other 
tyrants. Seldom, if ever, in their own generation do 
moral heroes receive the gratitude, honor, or reward 
their unselfish services deserve. 

As the highest intellects generally look to the good 
of others, not ]3ersonal aggrandizement, and, being the 
least ambitious among men, it remains for future gener¬ 
ations to place on them the “ diadem immortal.” 

Fame seems like a river that bears upon its surface 
the lighter substances, but in which the weightier and 
solid sink until a more progressive and appreciative in¬ 
telligence reverently resurrects the memory of those 
whose high resolves burned deep within their hearts, and 
who, with the electrifying eloquence of justice, roused 


^Secretary American .Secular Union. 



*2***;i** ^ •: paine. ^ 

men to wrench the new \VoV*ld from the hands of royal 


imbeciles. 

In the line of mankind’s saviors, few seem to have 
possessed such singular proof of capacity, such deep 
insight into the meaning of things, such couuage, perse¬ 
verance and freedom fiann either bigotry or dissimulation, 
as he whose name we recall to honor on the 29th of Jan¬ 
uary—the immortal Thomas Paine. 

Paine’s birthplace, home, pursuits, habits and early 
associates are an oft-told tale, and to recite these unim- 
j)ortant facts to freethinkers, fvho know and venferate 
him for his public services, seems largely a work of 
supererogation. Still, for any who may be unfamiliar 
with these events, it is well to briefly restate some of them. 
The hero whose memory every handful of true freethink¬ 
ers throughout this country will commemorate—a duty 
in which all good citizens should participate—was born 
of Quaker parents, in 'Phetford, County Norfolk, Phigland, 
151 years ago yesterday. He received but a limited 
education, being substantially self-taught, and was suc¬ 
cessively a stay-maker, sailor, exciseman, tobacconist, 
and teacher. In 1772 he i)ublished his first political 
pamphlet, showing the evils arising from the inadequate 
jjayment of excisemen, their lial)ility to bribery, etc. 
This brochure was sent to Benjamin Franklin, and in¬ 
duced him to recommend the j)oor author to come to 
America. On what trivial pivots great destinies turn I 
He came with the intention of teaching—especially 
with the design of elevating the education of woman, 
and edited a magazine then published in Philadelphia. 
In that publication his first poems appeared, and one of 
those, ^‘The Liberty Tree,” shows how he began to im¬ 
bibe that supreme passion for freedom which seems to 
have taken entire possession of his after life. 







PHOMAS PAINE. 


3 


His ardor for the revolution increasing, he devoted 
himself entirely to political literature, and in January, 
1774, published the spark that fired the train of inde- 
]3endence—that lucid, admirably-reasoned pamphlet, 
“ Common* Sense.” This flew in thousands of copies 
all over the colonies. It soon seized on the hearts and 
minds of the people, and cast all other authors in the 
shade. Its effect was electrical. 

Remember that Delaware, Maryland and New Jer- 
^ sey had already restrained their delegates in congress 
from* advocating open revolt. The legislature of Penn- 
sylvania elected nine delegates to the continental 
congress as late as November, 1775, with the following 
instructions : 

We direct that you agree upon such measures as sliall afford 
the best prospect of redressing American grievances and restoring 
harmony between Great Britain and the colonies so essential to their 
welfare and happiness. Though the British parliament and adminis¬ 
tration have compelled us to resist their violence by force of arms, 
yet we strictly enjoin that you dissent from and utterly reject any 
proposition, should such be made, that may cause or lead to a sepa¬ 
ration from our mother country or a change of the form of this gov¬ 
ernment. 

That sort of conservatism had been at work too 
long. Franklin saw the people must be aroused, and he 
knew the only man capable of flashing the torch of 
freedom was Thomas Paine, who in that memorable ap¬ 
peal for independence embodied in words the vague 
longing of the whole country, for, in great emergencies, 
politicians are seldom as radical or correct as their con¬ 
stituents. 

Listen to this great-hearted heretic’s plea for inde- 
])endence : 

Every quiet method of peace hath been ineffectual; our prayers 
liave l:»een rejected with disdain; reconstruction is now a fallacious 


4 


THOMAS PAINE. 


dream. Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone ot 
nature; can you hereafter love, honor and faithfully serve the power 
that has carried fire and sword into your land? Ye that tell ns of 
harmony, can ye restore to us the time that is past? The blood of 
the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ’tis time to part. The 
last chord is now broken; the people of England are presenting ad¬ 
dresses against us. A government of our own is our natural right. 
Ve that love mankind, that dare oppose not only tvranny hut the 
tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with 
oppression. Ereedom hath been hunted round the globe. Europe 
regards her like a stranger and England hath given her warning to 
depart. Oh, receive the fugitive and prepare an asylum for mankind. 

As a match touched to powder fires a magazine, so 
lliese burning words set the country afiame, and this 
common light blazed luridly in the continental congress. 
This secured the union of all the states, and the Declar¬ 
ation of Independence was produced. America listened 
to Paine’s grand, resistless appeal; she received gladly 
for awhile the fugitives who had been hunted round the 
ghd^e and, in some respects, partially realized the daring 
dream of that heroic soul who contributed such nervous 
eloquence to make this republic a worthy asylum for man¬ 
kind. 

We cannot follow in detail the story of the Revolu¬ 
tion, but we can record that the shout of victory was for 
the sturdy colonists as a result of Thomas Paine’s 
powerful earnestness, sterling honesty and strength of 
logic when espousing the cause of Liberty. 

Paine soon became secretary of the committee on 
foreign affairs, and was the accepted oracle on subjects 
of constitutions and governments. The university of 
Pennsylvania conferred on him the degree of master of 
arts; he was elected a member of the American Philo¬ 
sophical Society, and the state of Pennsylvania gave 
him a grant of ;£ 5 oo. Why? Because his “Crisis” 


THOMAS PAINE. 


5 


sustained the army, excited national sympathy, and pro¬ 
duced money and union in support of the war on every 
occasion when a number appeared. Though a poor 
man, Paine headed the subscription for the distressed 
soldiers with ^500—the last dollar he had. He gave the 
fruit of his brain for the common good, refusing to 
copyright his works, so that they would be republished, 
have wider circulation and thus increase their influence. 
He originated public opinion, moulded it, and led it to 
final success, so that John Adams remarked that “ in vain 
would have been the sword of Washington (worthy as he 
was), but for the pen of Paine.” 

After the war, as a further evidence of esteem, the 
Paine farm of three hundred acres, worth ten thousand 
dollars, was presented as a testimonial by the state of 
New York, and congress awarded him three thousand 
dollars as a mere compliment, apologizing for the small¬ 
ness of the sum on account of the poverty of the union, 
burdened as it then was by the expense of the war. 

He then visited Europe; introduced iron bridges in 
England and mixed with the best talent of the day; but 
when the fawning flatterer (T royalty, Edmund Burke, 
wrote his “ Reflections on the F'rench Revolution,” Paine 
shot out his modern thunderbolt, the “Rights of Man,” 
and shivered the aristocratic sham to atoms. His pr 
vious political works had largely produced the revolt .lon 
in France, and as a result already that high altar of des¬ 
potism, the bastile, had been destroyed. 

Public recognition of his great service to the Ameri¬ 
can republic did not result in his calmly sitting down to 
enjoy what was then willingly bestowed, but merely in¬ 
tensified his determination and increased his enthusiasm 
to strike stronger and deeper into prevailing infamous 
frauds, whose outgrowth were hypocrisy, vice and feroc- 


6 


'niOMyVS PAINE. 


ity in France. To him, ‘^the peace of slavery was worse 
than the war of freedom.” 

As an illustration of the power of his pen, an act of 
parliament was considered necessary to suppress his 
works in England about that period. 

You all know Paine’s glorious service for liberty in 
France, where, elected ‘to the national assembly from 
several places at once, he stood in that assembly the 
solitary representative of justice and mercy. Refusing 
to support Robespierre in the death of Louis Capet— 
though willing to “ kill the king, he was anxious to save 
the man”—he fell under suspicion (for the wrongs of 
ages had transformed men into tigers, whom nothing but 
human blood could satisfy), was imprisoned and con¬ 
demned; and while daily awaiting death, calmly pre¬ 
pared his Age of Reason,” which he dedicated to the 
American people, still as solicitous for our mental liber¬ 
ation as he was for our political freedom. Contemplate 
that sublime spectacle ! The man who on the brink of 
existence, daily expecting to ascend the scaffold to the 
gory knife, where the gray hairs of aged men mingled 
with the tresses of beautiful women —the one man tinter- 
rified m an age of terrors —fearless alike of life or death, 
dreading nothing but dishonesty, devoted these (sup¬ 
posed) last hours to writing the boldest criticism on the 
bible that had ever seen the light of day I The “Age of 
Reason ” is the red rag before the ecclesiastical bulls; it 
is the gage of defiance for all theologians of Christianity 
to answer, but their answer never has and never will 
come. From this onslaught of Paine’s largely dates the 
downfall of faith, the destruction of bigotry, and the 
elevation of mankind to mental liberty. The fangs of 
the clergy were then directed against him, and he replied 
with the second part of the “ Age of Reason.” 


THOMAS PAINE. 


7 


Since then, treacherous misrepresentation, bitterest 
calumny, vilest vituperation, have been malignantly 
hurled upon his name for three-quarters of a century; 
but as we clear away this debris of bigotry and persecu¬ 
tion, brighter gems of genius and grander characteristics 
are revealed. 

On the overthrow of the republic by Napoleon, 
Paine returned to the United States, the condemned, the 
ostracized, the hated by all the priestcraft, who have 
not yet ceased to employ their spiteful venom. 

To this man who first wrote the words, “ The United 
States of America,” the undoubted inspirer of our 
Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, and 
the securer of that independence, no reverential shaft 
rears its lofty column in these United States ! Why this 
neglect ? No, not neglect, for a monster monument was 
erected—one which it was hoped would securely hide 
the true man from view forever. That monument was 
slander ! 

As Courbet, the French artist, led the populace of 
Paris, in 1871, to pull down the Column Vendome, built 
to commemorate the butcheries of their brethren by 
Bonaparte, so we freethinkers, by these annual services, 
are hurling down on the heads of those who built them 
the i)yramid of falsehoods which have rested so long 
on the fair fame of Thomas Paine. 

The priest has been aided in his defamation of this 
great defender of true principle by the aristocrat— 
when not the latter, by the monopolist. As monopoly is 
sure to create an aristocracy, so a constitutional govern¬ 
ment is often but the mask whereby the people, through 
ignorance, indifference or necessity, are lured to embrace 
a greater tyranny by their oppressors than armed legions 
could maintain. This system has created an American 


8 


THOMAS PAINE. 


aristocracy more relentless, cruel and heartless than 
some of those of Europe. 

Thomas Paine well said that the constitutional gov¬ 
ernment of England gave just enough liberty to enslave 
a people more effectually than by o])en despotism, and 
boldly advised the people to ‘‘ lay the ax at the root, and 
teach governments humility.” Alas for the traditions 
of American liberty ! Similar sentiments uttered in the 
United States a century and a half after his birth are 
punished with Death ! 

Under the pretense of combating unconstitutional 
measures, the authorities now overthrow the constitution 
themselves. For, if the freedom of the press and of 
private opinion are to be assailed by government, then, 
indeed, have the people degenerated, or never learned 
the lesson which such heroic souls as Thomas Paine 
labored so earnestly to instill. It is not strange when 
we remember that theological rancor has, by odious lies, 
almost obliterated the principles he taught, as well as 
the important part which Paine and other freethinkers 
])layed in founding what might have been the super¬ 
structure of that great asylum for mankmdy 

We no longer welcome representatives of liberty to 
America—they are “ foreign disturbers,” and must be 
denounced. Still society smiles on the moral and intel¬ 
lectual obliquity of the scions of European aristocracy. 
Such are the standards of this decade of the nineteenth 
century. Such were the standards of the Roman re¬ 
public when its corruptions had grown ripe for judg¬ 
ment. These are merely transitory—only presaging the 
reckless ruin sure to follow false ecclesiastical and 
social fabrics. 

Well may we remember the words of Madame Ro 
land, as she turned on the scaffold to gaze on the statue. 


THOMAS PAINE. 


9 


“( 9 , lAhertyWhat crwies are committed in thy 
name / ” 

Year by year, the toiling millions are receiving a 
broader education—largely the result of necessity. Once 
let them realize true social ethics, their collective mo¬ 
mentum will insure the enforcement of a-new Declaration 
of Independence. The second declaration is as just as 
the first, and is its natural result. The first founded our 
])olitical independence; the second will secure our indus¬ 
trial iNTER-dependence. The first was founded by the bul¬ 
let, but it is hoped to establish the second by the ballot. 

I’hen let the rallying cry of freethinkers and re¬ 
formers be : ^^Ye that love mankind, that dare oppose, not 
0)1 ly tyraiiny but the tyrant, stand forth ! ” 

We may veil our eyes, but we cannot Inde 
'Fhe sun’s meridian glow; 

'i'he heel of a priest may tread us down, 

And a tyrant work us woe; 

Put never a truth has been destroyed: 

'They may curse it and call it crime; 

Pervert and betray, or slander and slay. 

Its teachers for a time; 

Put the sunshine aye shall light the sky, 

As round and round we run; 

.\nd the truth shall ever come upjiermost, 

.\nd justice shall be done. 

Paine died in 1809, at New Rochelle, N. Y., compar¬ 
atively deserted, and few dared own his friendship after 
his fearless pamphlet, the ''Age of Reason,” appeared, 
for truth was the great magnet whose influence he 
obeyed; where that guided, Paine* implicitly followed, 
and thus this unselfish philosopher and patriot spent his 
life in a continual struggle for the good of others. 

To face a danger manfully is to comjirehend its import 
and its power, and in this his forethought was ])r()]dietic, 


10 


THOMAS PAINE. 


as even to-day the most advanced social and political 
reformer can still extract nourishment from his works; 
can still perceive with what prophetic wisdom Paine 
weighed, considered and largely counteracted, the vile 
hordes whose constant endeavor was to make men, in his 
time, drudges and slaves to royal and theological task¬ 
masters. 

Paine’s mind seems a deep well, which was in no 
danger of being exhausted by the copious draughts 
made upon it. His power and force of character was 
heightened by his versatility of thought, but though 
endowed with keenest perception and finest discrimina¬ 
tion, there was nothing of the mean, groveling, selfish 
jianderer in his composition. He was a student of men 
as well as books, with sympathies and experiences en¬ 
larged by contact with the bitter actualities of those in 
humble life, whose sufferings seemed to deepen, exalt 
and awaken him to trumpet-toned utterances for freedom. 

With Paine it was unmanly to murmur at loss of 
time, money, or energy. Great wisdom, devotion, and 
sacrifice were necessary to reform abuses and sup])ress 
existing evils, and gladly he gave all; to him it was 
cowardly to shrink from danger -even from death at 
the gory guillotine. 

The rights of which Paine wrote were those resting 
on man’s requirements and nature’s supply; not rights 
sanctioned by conventional compact u:>f rulers; not 
inherited from past generations, but inherent; not re¬ 
ceived from priests and kings, nor secured by their 
])archments, but rights derived from the fact of exist¬ 
ence and embraced in the very charter of our being. 
Knowing that liberty makes life, and that life should be 
strong enough to guard and maintain liberty, he also 
knew that the pursuit of happiness flows from freedom 


THOMAS PAINE. 


11 

of action, and that when government presumes to reg¬ 
ulate the volition of a people a great crime is committed 
and desolating oppression is enforced. “ Life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness ” must be conditions of exist¬ 
ence, for unless we exercise those functions we become 
diseased, and a portion of the body j)olitic perishes. 

He might have had his faults, but the faults of such 
noble souls are like foothills around the base of lofty 
mountains—the nearer we stand to them the more they 
obscure our judgment of their true proportions by hid¬ 
ing the peaks that rise beyond. But when we draw 
farther off, they slowly shrink into the plain, while the 
mountain giant, at first obscured, rises free and clear in 
majestic grandeur. Even so, as we look at the life and 
deeds of this great hero, do we realize how insignificant 
were any faults he possessed, com])ared with the grand¬ 
eur of his purjiose. 

Paine left us a reflex of his character in the sublime 
sentence: “The world is my country; to do good is my 
religion.” T'here never was counselor more faithful, 
patriot more sincere or successful, statesman with keener 
or more comprehensive views, or a man more unassum¬ 
ing, yet of firmer or more decided qualities. 

May Americans long appreciate the genius and rev¬ 
erence the virtues of their noble benefactor, for he left 
them a legacy greater than his works—the contemplation 
of his high-souled, unselfish character. 


rHOMAS PAINE. 


I 2 


S. P. Putnam, President of the American Secular 
Union, is conceded to be one of the most brilliant poets 
and writers of our time. In a j^rivate letter Mr. Put¬ 
nam expressed himself as follows: 

Dear Stevens: 

Read your brief oration on Thomas l*aine and admired it ever 
so much. It is one of the best ever penned. It shows a thorough 
understanding of Paine’s character and work. It has historic imagi 
nation and what I call jtiice. It struck me on reading it that you 
would make a hrst class biographer of Paine. You know we have 
not a good life of Paine — one where the facts of his career are mar¬ 
shalled in vivid, sparkling style, so that he is presented to the world 
in a brilliant, picturesque manner as a living man and not as an ab¬ 
straction. I believe you could fill this long felt want and give the 
free thought world a life of Paine—not merely of facts, but of the 
very spirit of the man, in which we can see the glow of romance and 
the splendor of his character. I suggest this to you if you have the 
patience as well as the enthusiasm. We need such a life, lull of 
facts, not long or tedious, but representing the man faithfully in 
what he did and also in his ideas. Your oration shows a real capac¬ 
ity in this direction. It gives the heart of the matter, is vigorous 
and to the point. It gives pictures of Paine and not merely a record. 

^'ours truly, S. P. Pi tnam, 






